interesting concept but characters were a little flat

This is a very fun middle grade that follows Paloma, who has physic ghost communication powers and a famous medium abuela whom she really looks up to. As you would expect sometimes ghosts are complicated, and combined with a prankster little sister and moving to a new state, Paloma gets into all kinds of wacky shenanigans. I liked the fantastical elements, and how they integrate pretty seamlessly with the other more realistic parts of growing up - social media, friends, parents, and navigating boundaries.

However, I found the character development a bit lacking. Even though a lot of characters are introduced - Paloma's extended family, kids from her new school, even ghosts - we don't get to learn much about them and they feel pretty flat. The story completely centers around Paloma and there were multiple points when I found her pretty self-centered. And this doesn't really change, despite one of the themes of the story being empathy. The emotional beats of the story also felt very sudden - her sister was annoying until suddenly she wasn't, her mom was completely unreasonable until suddenly she wasn't, her friend was super mad until suddenly she wasn't - and to me they felt unearned.

I want to be mindful of the age range of the intended audience, and I think this could be very relatable for a reader at the young end of the middle grade age range. There were certainly enjoyable and fun elements of the story.